Galaxy
by spontaneously.tired
Summary: Riley was the sun. Maya was the night. Isadora is his galaxy. Smarkle.


_Riley, is the sun. Warm and bright and lights up my whole day._

His father tells him of the opportunity he missed with her mother. That if Riley Matthews was anything like Topanga Lawerence, kind, intelligent, determined, he should hold on and never let go.

As the years went on, the brunette seemed to become more and more like her mother (according to the stories his father told him). She's smart and funny and doesn't take no for an answer and _he loves her._

When she smiles he can feel the sunshine on his face. When she hugs him he's enveloped in warmth, safety, and everything stays still. Like the world could disappear and all would be well as long as he was in her arms.

 _Maya, is the night. Dark and mysterious. And the night has always been a mystery to me._

Maya Hart is the opposite of her best friend. She is loud, brash, and doesn't pay attention to everyone's opinions. She is the human embodiment of the word fierce, and all he wants to do is hold on.

He was hesitant to follow her into the unknown at first (laws were good, they were needed), but his curiosity wins out. She introduces him to late nights and rule-breaking and making too much noise and _he loves her._

When she laughs, he can feel the floor shaking beneath his feet. When she grabs his shirt and forces his face inches away from hers, the room is spinning around him. Like everything was floating and she was the only thing tethering him to Earth.

He tries to choose. It's not right to be in love with two women. It would only lead to future heartbreak if both finally discovered their own feelings for him, and he wants to protect them from all pain. But he can't let go of the sun or the night, they're too wonderful, too perfect. There's no way to think of one without the other slipping her way into his thoughts.

His solution comes in the form of a cowboy named Lucas Friar who so obviously likes Riley. They're sickeningly sweet with their _hi's hey's and hello's_ and a small part of him knows he'll never have a chance as long as he's around. But it's okay, now he can focus on Maya. Sure she has a thing for Uncle Josh, but maybe she'll stop playing the long game and look at him in a new way.

All is well for a while. Maya and him (and Riley and Lucas) go on a date. He proposes and they get (fake) married. He's officially declared a genius and ends up marrying the sun too. But it ends. It ends and he doesn't feel broken. He still feels the warmth of the sun and the mystery of the night, but he ends it (he still doesn't understand why, yes, Isadora was important, but they were like forces, weren't they destined to repel?).

Somewhere along the way, Maya develops these new, strange, and sudden feelings for Lucas. When did the ha-hurrs become something other than friendly teasing? What happened to Josh? What could _he_ do to make sure neither of them were crushed?

Then there's lying and the Charlie Gardner of it all and he lets the truth spill out. He can see the anger on Riley's face, the confusion on Maya's, but he did the right thing. They couldn't start the New Year with a lie.

Everything's such as mess that he doesn't realize _he doesn't care_ that his feelings for the sun and the night have become dull shadows of what they use to be. Riley cocoons him with warmth and everything moves. Maya brings his face close and the world is still.

He is unable to pinpoint the exact moment his love for them changed. He loves them, he does, but he doesn't want to kiss them, or marry them, or have eleven children split amongst them. _Maybe he was never in love at all._

 _Warm and bright and lights up my whole day._

His leg shakes as he waits for his graded chemistry test to be given back. Farkle had always been confident in his scientific abilities, but this test was the hardest one he ever took.

"Class, I'm sorry to say that the average for this test was much lower than previous ones. If you are having trouble, please considering coming in for help during lunch," Dr. Lester says before beginning to pass back their tests.

She smiles at him before putting his test face down on his desk. He quickly flips the stapled stack of paper over and is greeted with a 90/100 in red ink. It's not a high A, but still an A. He turns back to see Isadora's reaction and the 100/100 on her test sticks out like a sore thumb.

She smirks at him, "Perhaps you need a tutor, I'm available during lunch?"

He rolls his eyes as the bell rings and puts an arm around her as they walk out of the classroom, "I'm proud of you my archlovesis, that test was extremely difficult."

He's standing at her locker now as she reaches for the top row to grab her history book. Though she tries to hide it with her hair, he can see a slight pink tint flow to her cheeks and grins to himself. She finishes organizing her items for the rest of the day and falls back into her position under his arm. He's surprised when her lips meet his cheek, and can feel his own face turning pink. A warm wave surges through his body and his day gets a little bit better.

 _And the night has always been a mystery to me._

He walks around the school looking for Smackle after his cooking class is released early. If you had told him a year ago that he would actually enjoy taking a cooking class rather than another science class as an elective he would have laughed. But somehow, all the extra science classes were full, and he figured he might as well take a useful elective. Surprisingly, cooking was a lot like chemistry, following a formula to make a reaction.

It's finals week and he had two hours to make any type of dessert. His teacher would grade his final project, and then he'd be done. And although cooking wasn't an academic subject, Farkle Minkus was still a genius in the class. It took him no time to make the perfect batch of chocolate chip cookies, Isadora's favorites, and get his A.

As he says goodbye to Mrs. Kindren and thanks her for unlocking and honing a skill he was unaware he possessed, the only thing he can think about is sharing his A worthy cookies with Isadora. She never mentioned which elective she was taking, explaining to him that it was not anything important. So he wanders around the school, until he hears her name.

"Okay, the next performance is Isadora Smackle."

The door is halfway open and he can tell that it's the music room. Curious as to why Isadora would be taking a music class, he lingers behind the door. She's sitting at the piano and begins to play, her fingers seem to hit the keys perfectly. And then the noises of an angel are released from her mouth. He listens to her preform and the class erupts into cheers once she's done. A couple of other kids sing after, but the bell rings soon enough.

Isadora walks out and is met by a beaming Farkle with a batch of cookies in his hand.

"Honey," she says surprised, "What are you doing here?"

"I finished class early. Why didn't you tell me that you could sing?"

She shrugs and reaches for a cookie, "It's not that important," she takes a bite, "Besides, it's better if you don't know all my secrets."

There's a smirk on her face that he's grown to love. He feels his knees get weak and makes a silent promise to discover all the mysteries of Isadora Smackle.

 _gal·ax·y (noun): a system of millions or billions of stars, together with gas and dust, held together by gravitational attraction._

When he first meets her, he's intrigued by her passion and ability to beat him every time seemingly without even trying. And though a romantic relationship was never on his mind, he can't help but feel a silent pull towards Isadora Smackle. When he finally gives in, he forgets all about his doubts.

Riley was the sun. Maya was the night. Isadora is his galaxy. She enconcopasses all of sun and night. When they touch he feels warm and dizzy and floating and grounded all at the same time. He'll never let her go.

She challenges him to be his very best, yet is the most supportive person he knows, ready to defend anyone who goes after him. She's brilliant, brave, and flawless and _he's in love._

Smackle is lying under his arm as they watch a documentary on the recent scientific discoveries of the world in his living room. He knows she's dozing off beneath him after a day of hanging out with their amazing (but exhausting friends). He looks down at her and notices her eyes are closed and her breathing is even. He wants the first time to be special, and he's not sure if she's ready to hear it just yet, but everything in the galaxy is screaming at him to just say it.

She can't hear him right now in her state of slumber and that gives him all the courage he needs. He looks down at Isadora once again and presses a kiss to her forehead, "I love you." He doesn't notice the slight smile that forms on the sleepy girl's face.


End file.
